"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" ~ Mary Oliver

being thankful. . .

by mulberryshoots

Okay, so I’ve been griping some lately. It feels good to get it off my chest and out of my brain actually. As I was driving up here today with a car laden with fresh turkey, roasted chestnuts and the other groceries–celery, onion, Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing, homemade turkey stock plus food for an early lunch tomorrow when Caitlin and Tom arrive, I was thinking about life and how much the quality of our day depends solely upon how we react and process things that happen around us. I do think it is a choice. But sometimes we are feeling too pressured or preoccupied with our own agendas to notice that.

On the way here, I stopped at Verrill Farm, a local farmers market and food emporium where it turns out you can buy everything freshly homemade there and cart it home with your organic turkey to put in the oven. There were big pie plate containers of homemade stuffing; greenbeans and mushrooms, butternut squash puree. A woman behind me in the checkout line had a cart overflowing with the makings of a feast. When I asked her what was in one of the containers, she replied rather apologetically, “homemade stuffing and much better than I could make it myself at home.” I thanked her for letting me go ahead of her–I just had a cup of coffee. No one was judging her for not making her own stuffing, least of all me. So much largesse and yet, there’s still room for self-criticism.

When I arrived at the cottage, the ocean surf was coming in so strong that it reminded me of the hurricane we had just a little while back. After the groceries were carried in and unpacked, I hooked up my laptop and looked around me. There is so much to be grateful for: Thanksgiving with our family for one. Travelling safely in traffic and getting to one’s destination without mishap. The time to write a post about gratitude.

I am thankful. And I am humbled by how much there is to be thankful for rather than grousing about every little thing that comes my way. So, here’s to thanking the Helpers, the Sage, the forces in the Universe and God for everything that we live among, the good, the bad and the not so beautiful.

After all, it is the only world we live in. And for that, we can remember to be thankful.

ralph waldo emerson:

“Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house, a world; and beyond its world a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you: build, therefore, your own world.”

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

morning glories

Every year we plant "heavenly blue" morning glory seedlings in front of the barn. By the Fall, their brilliant blooms create an evanescent blanket of blue, viewed from our kitchen window on foggy mornings in late October and November.
Each flower blooms in the morning and fades at night, a reminder to live each day as it opens and closes.